A debate about the utility and the suitability of Amhran na bhFiann is as seasonal as spring: it's what we do, whenever the rugby season isn't going so well. Which is perhaps why I didn't need to take the national-anthem column from the linen-press last year.

An opinion is only an opinion if it can be altered. It is not a faith, or a belief, or a dogma, or a creed, or a compulsion. It is a thought that is open to analysis, and capable of being destroyed by rational argument or by the discovery of fresh facts.

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